Symbol and meaning
Wikipedia defines a symbol as an object, an image, a written word, a sound or even a living being, or a particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance or convention.
Some fields, notably scientific and technical, make extensive use of the concept of symbol, which designates a writing that represents an abstraction. This is how mathematics defines symbolic calculation. In philosophy and in the humanities and social sciences, we tend to distinguish between a sign, which has a precise meaning - such as road signs, whose meaning is indicated in a regulatory text with the least possible ambiguity - and a symbol, which refers to a set of thoughts.
A symbol can be an object, an image, a recognizable form possibly associated with a chromatic field, a word, a sound, a whole mark which represents something else by association, resemblance or convention. It can be a person, a "symbolic figure" of something, a recognition formula of individuals belonging to a group, a gestural signal or a drawn or sculpted sign.
Symbol and sign should not be confused. Signs - e.g. emblems - refer to a precise, conventional meaning, whereas symbols evoke, leaving the possibility of various mental associations.
The meaning of the word symbol has varied greatly since its origin, for example:
The word "symbol" comes from the ancient Greek sumbolon, which derives from the verb sumballesthaï (from syn-, with, and -ballein, to throw away) meaning "to put together ", "to contribute", "to compare"
Aristotle uses the metaphor "symbol" to designate a correspondence.
Heraclitus said of the Oracle of Delphi that it "says nothing and hides nothing, but signifies"; Porphyry reports that Pythagoras taught "either by developing his thought or by using symbols".
At the beginning of the XXth century, the symbol is a concrete sign evoking, by a natural relationship, something absent or impossible to perceive.
What if, in the end, a symbol is a concrete sign that reveals a whole world to those who know how to open their eyes? The symbol as a tool and a link, a correspondence, to the living. Something universal, uni-vers-al (in French, universel).
In Hebrew, the word "El" has three meanings. First, it can be translated as "God rescued" or "The power of God". Second, it can mean "the mighty things of nature". Finally, it can be translated as "strength" or "power".
One-to-God.
What if symbols could help you find the Divine within you?